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Has access to assisted dying expanded elsewhere?published at 19:59 GMT 24 February<\/p>\nHas access to assisted dying expanded elsewhere?published at 19:59 GMT 24 February<\/p>\n
19:59 GMT 24 February<\/p>\n
George Herd, BBC Wales<\/p>\n
Plaid Cymru\u2019s Delyth Jewell and Tory Mark Isherwood both raised concerns that where assisted dying has been introduced, there has been an expansion in just who is eligible, and for what conditions.<\/p>\n
Those defending the current proposals in the Terminally Ill Adults bill, such as Lord Falconer, point to the fact the legislation is modelled on what happens in the USA state of Oregon.<\/p>\n
The main provisions there, that an individual must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months, have not changed in 26 years.<\/p>\n
But opponents, including Cardiff University palliative care expert Baroness Ilora Finlay, say records in Oregon do show assisted dying has expanded, external<\/a>, especially in numbers – from 16 in 1998 to 278 in 2022.<\/p>\n In Canada, assisted dying initially required a patient to be terminally ill. <\/p>\n However, after a challenge in the courts, the law was changed in 2021 to include non-terminal conditions classified as a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” where it is “intolerable”.<\/p>\n A similar argument was made in Belgium, where the law was extended in 2014 to allow children with “a capacity of discernment”, and are terminally ill, to access assisted dying. <\/p>\n Records show six have done so since the change.<\/p>\n